1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network based forms and more particularly pertains to a new automatic system for configuring to dynamic database search forms for facilitate the efficient submission of multiple queries to search engines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Internet is a worldwide system of computer networks in which users at any one computer can get information located on any other computer (given permission). The Internet uses a set of protocols called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol or TCP/IP. The World Wide Web (often abbreviated as WWW) is a portion of the Internet using hypertext as a method for instant cross-referencing linking one document or site to another.
A database is a collection of data, which is organized in a manner that allows its contents to be easily accessed, managed, and updated. Given this definition an Internet site can be viewed as a database with a collection of data that can be viewed as pages, or accessible documents. Similarly, any network for accessing documents can be considered a database, including intranets and extranets. These network databases can be either static or dynamic. A static network database provides the same set of documents or pages to every user. A dynamic network database presents unique documents or pages in response to a user's query.
The use of search engines using network based forms to find relevant information on the Internet is known in the prior art. Search engines are able to match a multitude of documents to a user's query, but every search engine has a unique layout or form for collecting the users query. Additionally, some sites on the Internet allow additional databases to be searched when a query is applied to the specific form on the site that has been developed for searching the database associated with that particular site. The many variations possible between query form formats on Internet sites has made searching these various search engines and site databases en masse (or even just in large numbers) difficult if not virtually impossible to perform in an efficient manner. Conventional practice has often involved individually and manually configuring, or setting up, individual query formats suitable for use with queries submitted to each particular search engine or database. This manual configuration technique is in itself is a time consuming, tedious, and not always effective task when performed manually.
However, when one considers the many additional search engines and databases that may be added to the Internet on a daily basis, as well as those existing databases that may be newly discovered, it becomes apparent that this configuring task is an ongoing and never-ending chore that must be repeated for additional search engines and databases if one is to attempt to offer a user a truly in depth search of the ever expanding number of databases. The task of manually configuring search query formats thus hinders and may act as a considerable disincentive to offering a user the capability of searching a full range of the available search engines and databases, and so the user is presented with a less complete search of the Internet than the user may desire.
Therefore, while the prior art systems and techniques may fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned systems and techniques do not disclose a new automatic system for configuring to dynamic database search forms.